Some of you are lucky enough to land in your ideal career early on. But for others it can take a while to finally find your career. And meanwhile there’s often a lot of pushback — and judgment — from people you know.

Family and even close friends may see you as a failure, whether they actually voice their thoughts out loud to you or not. And more importantly, after landing in the wrong career more than once you may begin to see yourself as a failure. “Why can’t I make this work for me?”

But there’s also the pushback you get from prospective employers. “Why so many jobs?” “What about THIS job will make you want to stay?” And the truth is you may not even know the real answer for you, although of course you come up with one for the interview.

⇒  Why Do You Want THIS Job? (Make Sure You Know)

About finding your ideal career

We’re often pressured even before we graduate to figure out where we belong in life. Choose a major. Figure out what courses to take. Focus on building some skills. Hunt for that first job that you hope will work out.

But it can take a while (and some exploring) before we even grow into who we really are. So whatever your guess now [Read more…]

So you may not have landed in your dream job. And for any number of reasons you can’t simply bail right now. But can you still find meaning if your job feels stupid … at least to you? And why do your coworkers seem content enough with the same work you find so brainless?

Work is a funny thing. Rarely does anyone feel their job is perfect. So, consciously or not, each person does their own version of cost benefit analysis. Is it worth putting up with the imperfections for what this job gives you that you need for yourself or family?

Job feels stupid? Maybe look again.

Maybe the job that feels mindless to you is serving food to customers in a restaurant. Or handing out plastic numbers to customers in a fitting room. Perhaps your work is cleaning bathrooms. Or helping start a new agency to help homeless people but you can’t get the bureaucracy to change.

I’ve done all those jobs. [Read more…]

Ask anyone you know. Odds are they’ll tell you to have a new job solidly lined up before saying goodbye to your job. Quitting a job without a new one is crazy. And that’s pretty much the rule most folks go by. Why risk a paying job when you don’t have to?

But is staying in a job you can’t stand always your best choice? What about that longing for change you’ve felt creeping up on you?  Can you get what you really want by always playing it safe? And what about how a bad job affects your health?

Pros & cons of quitting without a new job

[Read more…]

One of the things I hate most about self-help articles is when they tell you to do some writing that is “essential” to the learning process. So why am I going to ask you to do the very same thing? Because I hope (if you choose to do it this way) that a written personal assessment will help you get a more honest & in-your-face picture of how your job feels — and what you might do to help.

Putting thoughts down on a page somehow makes them seem more solid, more real. And it also gives you a chance to go back later and maybe dig a little deeper. Or change anything that isn’t real enough. Just remember to be honest with yourself in your responses so you see a whole picture emerge that may be greater than the sum of its parts.

Part 1: Personal assessment

Self-Inventory A — How You Approach Things

[Read more…]

Of all the bad career moves I’ve ever made (and I’ve made quite a few), the one that was most invisible to my young self was aiming for a career that sounded good on paper. But one that in real life never actually worked for me.

Interestingly enough, I got ample clues along the way. And yet it took me a long time to finally see the light. People I worked with kept asking me to help with what was seen as “secondary to the business”. And I was good at it. But not what this young grad student was taught to aim for.

Support work is a “bad career move”

Or so I was told. “If you want to be successful, do what the business is really about.” [Read more…]

If you’ve ever dreamed of a job or career but talked yourself out of even trying — or maybe just put the thought on the back burner for another day that never comes — you may be suffering from obstacle illusions!

An optical illusion is “a misleading image presented to the vision.” When it comes to your job or career obstacle illusions are misleading images / conclusions that you yourself feed to your own mind.

• “I could never do that!”
• “No one will hire me.”
• “I’m kidding myself to even consider this.”
• “I don’t have / can’t get the required experience.”
• “Jobs like this are for people smarter / more talented than me.”
• “This kind of job is for dreamers. I need to grow up and be realistic.”

Why do we create obstacle illusions?

[Read more…]

Are there high school graduates who might be better off choosing a trade school instead of college? While I’m betting their parents could argue about what better off means, for some people trade work is actually their path to a career they love.

College has a lot to offer, but there is no doubt that not everyone needs college. Not if your end goal is to create a good career and sound financial future for yourself. Without a boat-load of debt weighing you down!

But the world around you doesn’t always agree with that. Or make it easy to pursue a path that seems less prestigious.

So what exactly is a skilled trade job?

[Read more…]

Although I know there are men who feel this way too, I’ve met way too many intelligent women who are just plain afraid of numbers. Or maybe rather than a fear of numbers for some people it’s simply that they don’t really connect to them.

Words can help tell a story. Words can delivery nuances of meaning. But numbers? What can they tell us? Well, they can tell us a lot. Especially if you make them your friends.

I’ve always loved numbers. As a kid, I did well in math (don’t hate me) and even used to follow stocks in the local newspaper. I’d pretend I had money invested in them. And watched the numbers (prices) tell me a story of value but also market psychology. My own fantasy stock market!

But I get that MANY people, especially women, do not share my delight. Instead, when they see numbers or hear someone talking about them, their eyes begin to glaze over. And their fear of numbers sets off  a brain alert: “Danger. Danger. Numbers coming. Shut off brain. And get me out of here!”

Making friends with numbers

[Read more…]

I just saw something online that said if you work hard you will succeed. While I love the simplicity of that thought, unfortunately it’s just not true. There are a lot of you out there working your butts off and not getting the recognition or the money you deserve. And, for many of you, you certainly aren’t succeeding as far as actually enjoying your work.

So is the answer to work even harder? Probably not — at least not without making sure what you are doing will get you somewhere you want to go. Success comes in many forms. But none of them are the result of hard work only. So what’s the rest of the formula?

Examples of working hard w/o big payoff

Before we get to the rest of the formula, let’s look at a few examples where hard work doesn’t lead to anything but frustration and more hard work. [Read more…]

“He’s too soft to succeed.” I’ve heard it said in meetings and even in post-interview discussions. But what exactly does that mean? And how did that idea get planted in so many business minds?

There’s a lot packed into those few words so often spoken as truth — yet very little of it of any use to good business practice. In fact, labels like “soft” can actually wind up influencing staff performance negatively. And missing the point altogether.

Employees frequently act as they perceive they need to. And phrases like that leave a lingering impression that can turn into a form of self-censoring. Meanwhile, judgers judge as they think they need to for them to succeed. And, in the process of everyone trying to be what’s expected of them, authenticity gets lost.

Cliched thinking is lazy management

It’s easy to use phrases that basically minimize or altogether remove the human side of work and business. Let’s not give power, they tell us, to things that aren’t easy to quantify on paper or in a good ole pie chart! You know the old sayings:

• No pain no gain.
• Survival of the fittest.
• Winning is everything.
• The end justifies the means.
• It’s just business, not personal.
• Being too “nice” will get you eaten alive.

But well-known shortcuts in language like these limit healthy discussion of the bigger — and more accurate — picture. And they also help cut off healthy workplace behavior, including giving value to emotional intelligence and the human resource side of work … a company’s most valuable asset.

Without us humans, business  just isn’t happening. Even robots need humans to create them … at least as of now. [Read more…]